Aunt Buffy
by oldscout1011
Summary: After a long night of patroling, Buffy chases down one final creature.


Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, this is just for fun.  
  
Aunt Buffy  
By Oldscout1011  
  
It was 3am and the final street, just a few more houses before a warm shower and soft bed. Buffy didn't consciously know she was on her street, there were other things on her mind. Dawn would be home tomorrow, no tonight, or this evening, or whatever, from a long weekend in San Diego with friends. Buffy wanted to cook her something different for dinner as a welcome home. She had been contemplating it all night.  
  
Buffy stopped walking, some thing was wrong; she just knew it. Tonight, now, something was off. She looked across the street at the row of darkened houses. The clear night with moon hidden somewhere displayed her neighborhood in darkened grays and shades of black.  
  
The house was familiar, though it took a second to associate it in the colorless night with its Technicolor daytime equivalent. Buffy knew the young couple who lived there; they were neighbors and former school mates. Clarissa and John were seniors the year Buffy came to Sunnydale. Clarissa was one of the few people Buffy had saved who ever mentioned it again. She, of course, never mentioned exactly what happened but freely acknowledged she owed her life to Buffy.  
  
Three kids, three beautiful young children Buffy was indirectly responsible for. If she hadn't saved Clarissa, there wouldn't two beautiful little twin girls and now a brand new baby brother. Buffy had even been invited to the baby shower. She had adopted the young family as her own, even called herself Aunt Buffy when she stopped by to play with the little girls or coo at the baby for a few minutes.  
  
Now something was different, the silhouette of the house was wrong; there was an extra lump at the window of the middle bedroom, the baby's room. Buffy reached behind her back and pulled a stake out from under her black leather jacket and started across the street. The lump moved and something unfolded itself from the window and dropped to the ground. The creature was as tall as a large man and thicker. It wasn't human though, she could tell even from its silhouette, its legs bent back in the wrong direction like an animals.  
  
The creature turned in the shadows and looked directly at Buffy. She couldn't make out any features but could tell it was holding something, a basket? A baby basket, like the one Clarissa carried Joshua around in.  
  
The two creatures of the night locked eyes. At least that's what Buffy's Slayer senses told her since she could only see a moving shadow. And the creature was gone. Buffy blinked, had it been there at all? Was she just imaging it? No. She saw it running through the back yards. She'd never seen anything move so fast.  
  
Never giving it conscious thought; the Slayer immediately took off in pursuit. The two ran silently through the neighborhood; over hedges, leaping picnic tables, hurdling fences. The creature was much faster than Buffy, on a straight course she wouldn't have had a chance, but it kept changing directions. It was trying to shake or confuse her, sometimes running a complete circle around several houses before heading off in a new direction. The whole time the creature kept a tight grip on its basket never once risking spilling or dropping the precious cargo.  
  
Buffy was beginning to tire and was getting bored with the whole game when she realized they had made their way close to the woods. The creature was making a b line for the darkened forest and safety. Buffy had one last chance, she changed her gait from a steady paced run to a javelin stride and launched her stake at the creature just as it entered the wall of shadows created by the woods at night.  
  
The Slayer stopped at the edge of the woods and waited. Buffy was gone, the girl who only minutes before was trying to remember her mother's meatloaf recipe and wondering if they had cook books down at the library was replaced by a predator. Not just any predator but one that called the mouth of hell home and dared the creatures of the night to challenge her.  
  
She opened her senses and searched into the tree line for a sign of the creature. After that long chase, there was nothing; no movement, no sound, no leaves rattling, no baby crying, nothing. Wait; there was something, a smell, the all too familiar smell of blood. Buffy stepped into the tree line and darkness.  
  
Even with her enhanced senses she couldn't see her hand in front of her face so Buffy pulled a small mag-lite flashlight out of a sheath on her belt. Holding it at eye level she searched the woods around her then started following her nose and into the blackness.  
  
The thin bright beam of the small flash light landed on a large figure lying face down on the forest floor. It had odd white skin that seamed to shimmer in the narrow light. Buffy stepped closer and realized it wasn't shimmering skin but fur moving from the evening breeze. She frowned. She'd never heard of a demon with fur before, hair yes but fur. This was weird. She looked along the body and saw her stake impaled solidly through the black vest it was in wearing. Middle of the back, it was a perfect vampire kill. Only this wasn't a vampire.  
  
Where was the basket? Panic struck. What if she was too late? What if something happened to the baby? Why wasn't he crying after all of that? She looked around with the thin beam of her flash light and finally saw the basket still clutched in the demon's hand. She walked up and looked again, not hand, paw. She could tell now this wasn't Clarissa's baby basket.  
  
Buffy squatted down and looked at the basket. The contents were covered by a brightly colored blue, red and yellow cloth. Cautiously, she reached in and snatched away the cover letting her flash light reveal the last thing she ever expected or imagined, even on the hell mouth.  
  
Turning back to the creature, she looked at it again. It was wearing some clothes, a black vest but no pants. She guessed it didn't need pants what with having fur and all. It was also wearing a hat, a Top hat to be exact. She rolled the creature onto its back knocking the hat off. But after seeing what was in the basket she was expecting this. Two long floppy ears fell out from under the hat. Buffy sat down hard, this was definitely new. She stared at the creature's bright, multi colored bow tie wondering what to do.  
  
-----  
  
Later that evening Dawn burst into the house dropping her luggage and shopping bags inside the front door. "Hey Buffy I'm home!" The teenage called out enthusiastically.  
  
Buffy looked around the corner from the kitchen. "Hi Dawnie, I'm in the kitchen, supper's almost ready. I hope you're hungry."  
  
"I'm famished." Dawn replied after hugging her sister and following her back into the kitchen. "Wow, it smells delicious!" As she spoke, she saw something new on the kitchen table. "Cool, a whole basket of Easter eggs." She said as she took one and started cracking it open. "Where'd you get these? Did you make them?"  
  
"No, I just picked them up."  
  
Dawn was now at the stove sniffing what was in the large pot. "What'cha cooking?"  
  
"Hasenpfeffer." 


End file.
